Musings of a Disappointed American on the 2022 World Cup

I’ve had about eleven hours to think about the results of the 2022 World Cup announcement, read my peers, and come to grips with the failure of the USSF to land the World Cup. And I think I have a handle on my thoughts and emotions about today. I watched the announcement via the EPL Talk live blog and Twitter, so I was spared the gut-punch of seeing the card with Qatar on it. However, the announcement still hurts as I type this.

I think Qatar is a deserving host for the World Cup. I like the idea of the World Cup bringing peace to a troubled region is a great idea. Civilization began in Mesopotamia, and it’s only fair that after eighty years the region have a chance to host. Their government and citizens were 100% behind the bid. Say what you will about the air-conditioned stadiums that are portable, but if anyone can build an impossible building, Qatar can. They have the money to do it. Seeing pictures of their celebration and the speech thanking FIFA, even the hardest hearted person has to feel a little happy for the delegation.

As for the United States, we acted as though we had a right to this tournament, when in reality what right do we have to the World Cup? The lead story on Sportscenter this morning was LeBron returning to Cleveland, not the World Cup announcement. Even after the United State’s dramatic matches in the World Cup, MLS television viewership fell off in this country. When we accuse other countries of not being able to truly honor soccer during the World Cup, we should hold our tongue until the ratings and attendance for MLS approach those of foreign leagues. We (that is, Americans) should never have assumed the 2022 World Cup was ours.

And yet, the way it all went down is what made this whole thing rotten.

If you believe there were no politics in play on this FIFA Executive Committee, I have waterfront property in Arizona I’d like to sell you. England, the birthplace of the sport and home of the sport’s most well-known player (who presented the bid!), received fewer votes than a joint bid between the Netherlands and Belgium. Coincidentally, the British press aired their high-profile investigation of FIFA this week. But that was 2018, not 2022, so maybe the committee put aside their politics and made the selection based completely on the merit of the bids.

Not quite. Anyone who tells you that Qatar is like the U.S. in 1994 is delusional; Qatar is not only not using the World Cup to build a domestic league but is even exporting their stadiums to other countries! If FIFA wanted to boost a domestic league, they would have given the event to Australia, whose A-League needs a boost in popularity. Also, it can’t be coincidence that the two winners were both major oil money countries with very suspect undergrounds. If FIFA was afraid of its image being dragged through the mud by the BBC, it gave a big fat middle finger to the world media and gave the event to two countries with very suspect human rights records that also are plush with oil money. Even is this was not why the two were selected (and I don’t think it was entirely), the perception is there and FIFA can’t counter it.

My other concern with the Qatar World Cup is something people have joked about but is a real issue – the restrictive societal laws in the country. Maybe FIFA can figure out a way around it, but can Budweiser be the official beer of the Qatar World Cup? Drinking alcohol is a big no-no in Qatar. Additionally, will FIFA sponsors be hesitant to associate themselves with a Qatar World Cup if their record on women and religious minorities does not improve? And the Middle East is not exactly known for political stability – there is a real risk some sort of conflict could be going on during the World Cup. An improving Israel could face a very awkward run to the World Cup. The fact that they were selected despite all this really throws the legitimacy of the bid into doubt.

One other item to note on today’s selection – FIFA may have been sending the U.S. a message with the selection of Russia for the 2018 World Cup. Russia announced recently that its top-flight league would begin playing a fall-to-spring schedule beginning in 2012, despite the notorious Russian winters. There is no doubt in this fan’s mind that FIFA was sending a not so subtle signal to the U.S.

At the end of the day, the United States hosted a World Cup in 1994, and maybe we only deserve to host one every so often. I wrote about the impact of losing the bid on U.S. soccer, and it will hurt MLS and the other domestic soccer entities, but they will go on. Soccer will not die out because of what happened today, and we should not consider bending to the will of FIFA in the hope of getting another shot at a World Cup. But we should all be a little more humble and a little more dedicated to improving our sport here.

Qatar is particularly poor because how how its society is structured. What we will likely see in 2022 is a sort of “Western” zone, where alcohol is allowed, social restrictions are relaxed, etc. While the World Cup party is going on, business will continue as usual around the rest of the country, with all the humans rights abuses that come with that. This will take the criticisms about the Cup in South Africa to a whole other level.

Australia were a far more deserving first time host, but the size of the country and the poor time zone tv were always going to be issues.

Good point about time zones and Australia. It hasn’t been part of the media coverage, but Qatar’s location is very, very convenient for European TV–unlike Australia, the USA, Korea and Japan. That means $$$$.

I disagree on Russia. They hosted the Olympics in 1980, for goodness sake. A big event will be no problem (though I’d personally prefer Spain/Portugal).

you do realize that the USA paid the 2nd largest TV rights fees behind all of Europe put together and ahead of any other entire continent for the 2010 WC right? and had FIFA put the 2022 WC it would have far and away been the highest TV rights payer in the history of the WC, probably nearing the $1Bn that was paid for the Olympics if not more by then?

i personally would love to see the US government (the US Attys Office) simply investigate and declare FIFA an organized crime syndicate and bar any US Company (or any company with business in the US) from doing any sort of business with them. that would be freaking priceless.

” you do realize that the USA paid the 2nd largest TV rights fees behind all of Europe put together ”

The US paid for a ” package ” that includes all the FIFA events ( including south africa 2010 and brazil 2014 + confederations cups + women’s world cups etc..) of 2 world cup cycles (2007—->2014).
The european countries pay tv rights fees one men’s world cup at a time. When you break it down you’ll find that the USA pays for 1 men’s world cup less money in tv rights fees than a country like germany.

The people of Middle east are crazy about Soccer. I am very happy for Qatar and the rest of the region. We need good news coming from that part of the world. I hope this inspires the youth of indulge in sports rather than violence.

Also very disappoint­ed with some of the comments here. The people living in Qatar may have a different lifestyle than us, but they deserve this as much as any other nation. Also an event like this will help the liberal forces in the middle east and will be a defeat for extremist.

I don’t think the Russia choice had anything to do with the MLS’s season arrangement. I’m a Colorado Rapids fan, but I don’t pretend to think anyone our league a moment’s thought when choosing the 2018 World Cup location.

really mark? your bringing tea partiers into this. Sad man, i know many people conservative and liberal that play the beautiful game, their persnal political view has nothing to do with the passion for the game.

since i was 7. Being a tea partier has nothing to do with this. Its about Money and more Money. FIFA is like our government as in being whores for bribs. If anything Us supporters should carry signs that say GO TO HELL FIFA.

look. the point is that there should be some basic minimum requirements to host the largest sporting event on the planet.

like say that your bid must include at least 6 distinct and separate metropolitan areas/cities of a minimum population of 100K none of which may be closer than 25 miles apart. your bid must have at least 8 stadiums of 40K capacity that meet all FIFA requirements. whatever number of venues are submitted as potential bid venues at least half of them must be ALREADY BUILT at the time of the Bid and meet the minimum capacity requirements at the time of the bid (or have expansion construction that will do so already underway). so that would mean at most a bidding nation would have to have 4 40K stadiums that meet FIFA requirements already built. and the bid should have to have a minimum number of 31 separate adequate training and living facilities for each visiting team, 75% must already be built. and a minimum number of hotel capacity for fans must be met, 50% of which must already be existing (across a range of price levels).

there should also be a minimum requirement that the bidding nation/s meet some minimum human rights standards as assessed by independent 3rd party experts like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International.

those are hardly unreasonable expectations for a WC Bid to have to meet. and if a single nation cannot meet than a multi-nation bid should be able too. i would allow bids of between 2-4 nations but always only allow one automatic “host” team into the tournament. any multi-nation bid must also include a format for deciding what that one team would be.

and even tho those proposed minimum requirements are VERY VERY low Qatar does not even meet a SINGLE ONE of them. THAT is how big a JOKE this bid was!

i have no problem with the Middle East having a WC someday. i have a problem with a pissant sized nation of 400K native residents and hordes of slave labourers who are serial human rights/women’s rights abusers and seriously involved in human trafficking, who has almost NONE of the required stadium, training, hotel or travel infrastructure built at the time of the bid and who plan on literally wasting tens of billions of dollars building (hopefully) all of said infrastructure for a single month only to then have it be torn down or become entirely useless after the WC is gone.

that is a travesty to all humanity and the game around the world. what good to the world game comes from such wanton wastefulness? 5 piecemeal handmedown stadiums if we are lucky? a few deaths of players and/r specators if we are not?

there is no way to spin this positively. this was a f**king crime. and Australia has more right to be pissed than even the United States. there is a nation that actually would meet all of my proposed minimum requirements AND who has also never had a WC in that region of the world and for whom a WC would actually mean leaving a legacy of infrastructure that will be used to build and grow a soccer culture in a nation that actually has the population to support it.

look. the point is that there should be some basic minimum requirements to host the largest sporting event on the planet.

like say that your bid must include at least 6 distinct and separate metropolitan areas/cities of a minimum population of 100K none of which may be closer than 25 miles apart. your bid must have at least 8 stadiums of 40K capacity that meet all FIFA requirements. whatever number of venues are submitted as potential bid venues at least half of them must be ALREADY BUILT at the time of the Bid and meet the minimum capacity requirements at the time of the bid (or have expansion construction that will do so already underway). so that would mean at most a bidding nation would have to have 4 40K stadiums that meet FIFA requirements already built. and the bid should have to have a minimum number of 31 separate adequate training and living facilities for each visiting team, 75% must already be built. and a minimum number of hotel capacity for fans must be met, 50% of which must already be existing (across a range of price levels).

there should also be a minimum requirement that the bidding nation/s meet some minimum human rights standards as assessed by independent 3rd party experts like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International.

those are hardly unreasonable expectations for a WC Bid to have to meet. and if a single nation cannot meet than a multi-nation bid should be able too. i would allow bids of between 2-4 nations but always only allow one automatic “host” team into the tournament. any multi-nation bid must also include a format for deciding what that one team would be.

and even tho those proposed minimum requirements are VERY VERY low Qatar does not even meet a SINGLE ONE of them. THAT is how big a JOKE this bid was!

i have no problem with the Middle East having a WC someday. i have a problem with a pissant sized nation of 400K native residents and hordes of slave labourers who are serial human rights/women’s rights abusers and seriously involved in human trafficking, who has almost NONE of the required stadium, training, hotel or travel infrastructure built at the time of the bid and who plan on literally wasting tens of billions of dollars building (hopefully) all of said infrastructure for a single month only to then have it be torn down or become entirely useless after the WC is gone.

that is a travesty to all humanity and the game around the world. what good to the world game comes from such wanton wastefulness? 5 piecemeal handmedown stadiums if we are lucky? a few deaths of players and/r specators if we are not?

there is no way to spin this positively. this was a f**king crime. and Australia has more right to be pissed than even the United States. there is a nation that actually would meet all of my proposed minimum requirements AND who has also never had a WC in that region of the world and for whom a WC would actually mean leaving a legacy of infrastructure that will be used to build and grow a soccer culture in a nation that actually has the population to support it.

I didn’t read your whole post because the second paragraph was so ridiculous. Why would FIFA require a bidding nation to have that many cities that distance apart? What is the benefit of that? To create travel delays? Seriously, what possible benefit is there to having these criteria you just pulled out of your ass? Yes, every other World Cup has had these things. Your point?

hmmm. i don’t know because those (actually min of 8 cities) were the minimum requirements before FIFA changed them specifically so they could take bribes from a Qatar bid.

and what do you think is exactly going to happen when you put a few million fans of bitter rival football teams all within the same 25 sqm radius? you think problems perhaps.

the point of having various distinct host cities is to spread the fans around, spread the teams around and lessen the impact on infrastructure. also, unlike the olympics soccer teams are very very secretive and there is no such “olympic village” kumbaya we are all here to have fun mentality to the WC. this is a deadly serious competition and teams are NOT going to want to be crammed in all 32 right on top of each other sharing training facilities sand sharing living facilities.

i can guarantee this. there is only about a 10% chance that Qatar will actually be able to physically build all of the infrastructure they are lacking to pull this WC off smoothly. i am sure everybody will focus on the 12 stadiums, 9 which must be built from scratch and 3 which much be overhauled. they will probably get the most attention and are the likeliest to get done.

but what about training facilities for 32 teams of which Qatar has about NONE right now? and the living facilities for 32 teams? and the hotel rooms for a few million (ok, since it is Qatar maybe they won’t get as many visitors so a few hundred thousand) visitors? the restaurants and entertainment for a population that will nearly double for a month? plus all of this “transportation” between the sites? and all of the needed technology to keep everyone from dying from the heat not just at the stadiums but at the training grounds and the fans everywhere else during their stay?

and even assuming they can import enough SE Asian slaves to build all of this in time, and pretending FIFA shouldn’t care that it will take such slavery to get it all built … at what cost? the estimate is $50 BILLION, with a B! the Qatari people should be outraged that their nation would waste that much money to put on a one month vanity production. because when it is over they are going to tear down the stadiums and give them to the nations they bribed, i mean “donate them to poor nations (yeah, right, i wouldn’t hold your breath to see if that happens) at the cost of hundreds of millions of more dollars. or what will actually happen is they will have 12 nice shiny modern stadiums without the population or sporting culture to use even 2 of them and they will sit there rotting in the sun (at the ongoing expense of the nation) a reminder to the vanity and stupidity and greed of the whole thing just like the stadiums in South Africa are (and SA is a nation with a vastly larger population and a vastly more developed and large sporting culture and they cannot even use but one or two of the stadiums going forward). plus all of that training facility, hotel capacity and transport infrastructure will not be needed after the WC. the country will still be a nation of only 2-3M (half of whom will be sub-citizen migrant slave workers) who won’t need all of that nice shiny new infrastructure and this it will sit and rot in the sun at the ongoing expense of the nation.

only somebody as stupid and venal as Sepp Blatter would think that is a way to “grow” the game into new frontiers. it is a way to put on a dog and pony show that just so happens to involve the spending of $50Bn dollars (which will turn into $80Bn) which is a plenty large enough number that a few million in cash and contracts funneled into the pockets of FIFA ExCo members will hardly be noticed.

that will be the legacy of a Qatar 2022 WC. rewarding substandard human rights, wasteful greed and vanity and utter corruption … and maybe a few deaths to boot.

FIFA is the main problem in all of this. and the main problem with FIFA is that there is no transparency, outside accountability and that too many small 3rd world nations (where corruption is often like mother’s milk) have too much power at both the federation and FIFA level.

a simple solution. a new fifa and new fifa exco:

FIFA would have a 21 member ExCo consisting of:

1 FIFA President: elected by the entire 208 member FIFA delgation (1 representative of each member nation’s FA) to serve a 4 year term. no FIFA president may serve more than two terms.

10 ExCo members from UEFA, 6 would be permanent members, a representative each of the federations of England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Russia and 4 would be members elected by the other remaining UEFA nations that served a2 year term. no nation’s representative could serve consecutive terms.

5 ExCo members from AFC*, 3 would be permanent members, a representative each of the federations of Japan, South Korea and Australia and 2 would be members elected by the other remaining AFC* nations that served a 2 year term. no nation’s representative could serve consecutive terms.

4 Exco members from CAF, 2 permanent members, a representative each of Egypt (and one other nation maybe SA?) and 2 would be members elected by the other remaining CAF nations that served a 2 year term. no nation’s representative could serve consecutive terms.

4 ExCo members from CONCACAF, 2 permanent members, a representative each of USA and Mexico and 2 would be members elected by the other remaining CONCACAF nations that served a 2 year term. no nation’s representative could serve consecutive terms.

3 ExCo members from CONEMBOL, 2 permanent members, a representative each of Brazil and Argentina and 1 would be members elected by the other remaining CONEMBOL nations that served a 2 year term. no nation’s representative could serve consecutive terms.

*AFC would include Oceania which would be disbanded

the full body of 208 representatives would also elect all high level administrative positions (Head of Refs, Sect General, etc).

anybody elected to the Presidency, ExCo or highest level of executive admin position must willing subject themselves to a full criminal and financial background check to be performed by an independent 3rd party investigative body (INTERPOL, FBI, etc).

the ExCo board acts as the final approval stage for all proposal from sub boards that investigate and suggest rule changes in their areas of expertise (Reffing, Rules, etc).

the ExCo DOES NOT vote on who gets the WC. knowing who will vote ahead of time only leads to bribery being a possibility. instead the ExCo is only responsible for setting out the minimum bid requirements (6 100K cities, 8 FIFA sanctioned stadiums, half of bid stadiums must be built at time of bid, 1 adequate living/training facility per team 75% completed prior to bid, adequate hotel accommodation for visitors 50% must exist at time of bid, minimum passing Human Rights grade by an independent 3rd part Human Rights watchdog group like Amnesty International etc), organizing and choosing a technical and a financial WC Bid Proposal Review team (independent and 3rd party) that travels to each bidding nation/s (NOT the ExCo members themselves) to collect and review data to write a Technical Bid Report and a Financial Bid Report for each bidding nation/s to go along with the Human Rights Bid Report for each bidder. the ExCo then reviews the bid documents and reports and decides what bids meet the FIFA minimum requirements. all bids that do then go to a vote. the vote is held at a full meeting of the 208 FIFA delegates. 20 are randomly selected by a independent 3rd party (that also overseas the vote itself) with the same make up as the ExCo (10 UEFA, 5 AFC, 4 CONCACAF, 4 CAF, 3 CONEMBOL). those 26 plus the FIFA President make up the 27 WC Voters. the 27 WC Voters are then sequestered in isolation (all communication 100% monitored) for 48 hours to review the bid documents, bid reports and to attend (with no direct contact with the bid parties) bid presentations. the vote then proceeds by rounds, lowest eliminated, until one bid reaches 14 votes. all voting is open and recored for public record and publication.

each federation would also be structured in a similar fashion with an ExCo made up of a certain number of permanent members (larger than at the FIFA level and a smaller number of spots to be rotated amongst the federations “minnows”….for example a CONCACAF ExCo might look like USA, Mexico, Canada, Honduras, Costa Rica, Jamaica as permanent members and 4 rotational members). the federation ExCo would hold similar responsibilities as the FIFA ExCo only at the federation level instead and instead of deciding the WC host each federation ExCo would decide their federations tournament (GC/Euros/etc) by a similar method.

obviously there is more detail to flesh out below this. including how to handle charges of corruption. the ExCo would hear evidence given by any party (FIFA member, media, national/federation personnel) and if a majority (14 of 27) agreed there was sufficient evidence/suspicion for concern they would request an investigation and report from an independent 3rd party investigative body (INTERPOL, FBI, etc). the evidence/report/findings would then be made public by the 3rd party at the same time as they are presented to the ExCo and they would decide on punishment based on those findings and majority decision. punishment for violations of FIFA ethics or corruption rules could range from disbarment of the individual from any FIFA positions int he future to the federation losing whatever spot (208 general body membership or ExCo membership) that that person held for a number of penalty years 2-4 (so not only would the guilty FIFA rep lose their position with FIFA permanently but the nation would also lose their position on whatever committee that person happen to hold for 2-4 years). FIFA would also have 3 independent and 3rd party accountants (one from each of Asia/North America/Europe say) and all accounts would be made public record.

all this sort of thing would take is the 15 federations that i suggested as permanent ExCo members (England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, S Korea, Australia) to get together and simply take a principled stand and demand a fairer, more open, more honest FIFA. heck it would probably only take 12 of the 15 to band together and not all 15 (tho i can’t see why any of those 15 would really object to such a system).

Didn’t bother to read your whole post (no offense), but your planned overhaul of the FIFA ex-co is exactly what I’ve been thinking should happen. There should be a greater number of voters (to dilute the power of corrupt individuals like Jack Warner), and a core of traditional footballing powers who could act in the interests of football, rather than trying to “stick one to the man”, which unfortunately is what I think some of the smaller countries try to do.

EADBlatter- One of the things that host countries should be able to do is have “spill-over” sites in neighboring countries. For instance, a Scotland European Nations Cup could have games in Newcastle or Cardiff. Only 3 or 4 games per site, and only Scotland is admitted as a host nation. They do this in Rugby, and will again when New Zealand host next year’s Rugby World Cup.

I am happy for both Russia and Qatar. USA was appealing to FIFA by simply stating they can make the most money but FIFA’s mission statement is to bring the game to the world. USA has been snubbing FIFA by refusing to take international dates off and by going forward with a single entity domestic league.

Did anyone notice how Don Garbage during MLS cup was stumbling around suggesting “simulated Pro/Reg” along with schedule alignment? I think USSF and Garbage have done enough and change needs to take place in order for USA/MLS to go to the next level.

It would be great to learn about what you are about to write. FIFA would not agree having the CUP in Qatar if the country would not change many of their rules and their government signed an official document saying that many of those HARD rules won’t be in effect, and who knows, they may even decide not to enforce some of them after the WC? Let’s hope for the best.

Sergio – Agreed, there will likely be a foreigner zone, but will Budweiser be able to turn its back on pressure from human rights groups who will protest their sponsorship? What about religious groups? What about the other sponsors? This issue isn’t as easy as simply allowing alcohol.

Issues I take with Qatar
-Human Trafficking and poor labor laws.
-Stadiums are fictitious until the foundations are laid
-The silly laws regarding drinking
-Qatar attempts to please everyone, which makes people wonder who they really support in the modern world.
-Their team is terrible, potentially the first host to get zero points

Now let’s look at the Qatar defense:
-”1st cup in Middle East” you could have also had the first cup in Oceania/Australia too.
-”Uniting the World”-Why not go to a diverse country like say USA or Australia for that?

Im more peeved that FIFA, when trying to recover a bit from a mess picks the two countries most likely to participate in corrupt activities to get the bid. I pray that the English media digs deep. They are out of a World Cup until 2034 (2026: CAF/CONCACAF 2030: Uruguay/Argentina), so get stuck in English media.

Those WC will be a success. There is no doubt about it. After all, it’s always is. Brazil 2014 faces huge problems, but it will deliever. So, that’s nothing against thinking Russia and Qatar won’t organize great WC.

Having said that, FIFA was wrong in picking them. For start, neither was the best bidder (maybe not even second). And even if one believes it was possible for FIFA to make a bet and chose one of them; to pick both, was way off the line. If it wasn’t enough all that have been said, both WC would be in the same time zone and the distance from the stadiums of both Finals is 2,200 miles (shorter than LA/NY).

It was a lost opportunity to take a safe bid (England or Iberia, US or Australia) and a risky one (Russia or Qatar). Nobody would be saying a word…

So in your mind it’s somehow problematic for FIFA that people are writing negative comments on blogs. That people here who are “saying a word” really makes a difference to them or to the success of the World Cup.

And you also think that Russia and Qatar are as culturally similar as LA and NY.

I’m not gonna say anything mean because you seem cool and at least cognizant of the fact that the World Cup will be a success no matter who whines to strangers on the internet. But the two points I mentioned above…I can’t agree with you there.

Look, we(the football community) are copping an absolute bath in the local press here by the usual gang of Soccer-haterz (eg: “A$46mil for what??” “Who cares..its only Soccer” etc) predicting [wishfully] the death of the game Down Under. This is the Legacy FIFA has left us to deal with. Thank you Uncle Sepp, I hope they shove your desired Nobel Peace Prize right up your Qatar! But this isn’t another rant that the only bid that failed to tick all the tech report boxes actually won..this is my I’m over it phase.
Last night we had a gripping 3-3 draw between Melbourne and Brisbane in the A-League. Now that the bid is done and dusted(annihilated?) its time for the FFA to get back to its core business of running the local game. We have the 2011 Asian Cup in January. Socceroos Capt Lucas Neill has already talked publically of going to Qatar(yes can you believe the irony that they will host the 2011 Asian Cup?) and wiping the smile off their faces, by winning the tournament. I think we’re old and a bit slow in the back 4, but if the motivation of losing the WC fires up a bunch of overpaid prima-donnas that should already be fired up to represent their country, then so be it. The other core business the FFA seem to have neglected in the past 2 years is the promotion and marketing of the League. They swear they haven’t but us fans believe they took their eye off the ball after the initial boom and success of the first 2 years. Time to get back and restore the shine to our great little league so we can remain a valuable addition to the Australian sports landscape! Time to pony up FFA and get our league on TV ads on mainstream free-to air TV. Even our AFL (think NFL) advertises on FTA TV! I’m optimistic about football in Australia. Sure we got raped by FIFA (again!) but we’ve survived worse and we will survive this and I hope go forward stronger for it! The standard of play is already light years ahead of where it was when we began 6 years ago, lets keep the momentum trending in the right direction!

personally, even tho i wanted the WC to come to the US and i think that the US had a technically and financially superiour bid to Australia, i would have had ZERO problem with the WC 2022 going to Australia.

their bid was very technically sound. they don’t have all of the needed stadiums and infrastructure they at least have a good bit of it already so the whole project isn’t just a fantasy building project. plus the A-League reminds me a lot of the MLS circa 2000-2001. the A-League and soccer in Australia really could have benefited from the lead up to the WC (as would have MLS and US Soccer).

putting the WC in a “nation” (city-state) of only 1.5M people that as no hope of developing any kind of soccer culture before or after the WC is the most tragic part of all of this when either Australian Soccer could have been given a boost to the level the US is at now or US Soccer could have been catapulted into the next level and gotten on par with the true world soccer powers.

i think a lot of it has to do with FIFA and all of the power being in the hands of tin pot corrupt scum bags from 3rd world nations who hate developed countries. FIFA really should be run by predominantly the 15 or so major soccer powers from each Confederation with a lesser role for people like Jack Warner from T&T etc.

Yes Giggsy, let’s leave out 3rd world nations altogether, because clearly it’s impossible to have power there unless you’re a “tin pot corrupt scum bag”. Hey wait a minute, how did certain nations become industrialized while others remained undeveloped? Could it be because powerful nations raped and pillaged riches from people they saw as inferior? NO WAY, let’s just pretend that America and England have always been honest and awesome and let them control the whole process.

I realize this pick was about money and a historical pick for being the first middle east country but that being said why on earth choose Qatar. Nothing against them but being that culture, how does FIFA really see selling a ton of tickets to the games??? US was represented more at the last world cup cause AMERICANS pay out the butt for sports. I just don’t see many people going to the middle east even if to be apart of the world cup. how may more tickets you think would have been sold if in the US?